About Me
I study how humans learn in complex environments — especially how curiosity, motivation, and uncertainty shape the choices people make. My early work at Purdue University examined cognitive effort and intrinsic motivation, showing that demanding tasks can be deeply rewarding when people feel capable of navigating them.
Today, my research focuses on information sampling and curiosity-driven learning: how agents explore, resist default paths, and discover value in complexity. I use behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and neural data to understand how people update beliefs, seek information, and build internal models of the world.
Across these projects, I’m developing a more generous model of learning — one that treats capability as discoverable rather than fixed, and curiosity as a powerful engine for adaptive decision-making.
Outside of research, I’m drawn to creative work and slow craft: painting, crocheting, guitar, and game design. These practices shape how I think about learning, exploration, and the joy of making things that didn’t exist before.